Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
Creative Writing is a subjective discipline and covers many forms. This guide is a (very) brief
introduction to some key elements that are often addressed in fiction writing courses. Links
to references about particular topics and creative writing as a whole are provided
throughout so you can extend your learning.
As with your other academic/formal writing, it is good to try and get what you need down
first: unfiltered, unhindered, imperfect. There will always be drafts and no one has to see
these, so don’t be afraid. You can edit! But first you need something to polish.
In the early drafts of a piece, you are still working out what you are trying to say to
yourself, and too much mental trafficking with an audience at that stage can inhibit
the flow of your imagination (Clarke 488)
The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all
over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later.
(Lamott 528)
Elements covered in this guide include:





Character
Point of View
Setting
Showing vs Telling
Narrative Structure
Whilst each element is addressed individually, they work in conjunction with each other
and, as you will see, are often inseparable. For instance, character often drives plot, but also
what you throw at your character plot-wise will show something about character.
There are excerpts from different texts throughout demonstrating specific
techniques/elements. You may like to look at the different excerpts and consider how the
other elements are used; for instance, looking at the examples for setting and seeing how
character is also demonstrated.
Character
Character is often considered the most important aspect of creative prose writing, though
this is, of course, debatable. Well-crafted characters draw a reader in and keep them
engaged with the story. Readers may grow to care about them, or, alternatively, become
repulsed yet keep reading because they are fascinated and keen to see the outcome.
Remember, characters don’t have to be likeable to be memorable or successful.
1
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
Another reason why understanding character is so important, is that character drives plot.
Knowing your characters, particularly your protagonist, and how they will respond to
events, interactions, and adversity is integral to engaging readers. As Heather Leach and
Robert Graham suggest, ‘A narrative where the characters have been squeezed into a
carefully constructed plot may not be credible or satisfying for the reader, but one that is
character-led has the authenticity of inevitability’ (26).
When presenting a character, you might consider:







How they speak/what they say
How do they move? Are they comfortable in their own skin?
What’s their background/personal history? What about their family?
What do they look like? Consider what they wear, how they style themselves – is
this even a consideration for your character?
What they do – do their actions align with what they say?
What are their interests/occupation/goals/beliefs?
What are their weaknesses/strengths/idiosyncrasies/habits?
Aim to use specific details rather than vague abstractions when creating your characters.
This will give them credibility and help you avoid cliches and stereotypes. Consider the list
above and think about the people you know and perhaps you can draw inspiration from
them.
Main vs minor characters
Depending on the scope of your narrative, you may have a whole array of different
characters, or you may only have a few. In both instances, it is likely that you will have main
characters and supporting characters. Some characters will be more complex than others,
some will change, and some may only play a brief but significant role in the drama; but,
even with the most minor of characters you should always try to avoid stereotypes.
Main/primary characters
Your primary/main characters include your protagonist/s and should be complex and
multidimensional. These characters often, though not always, develop as the plot
progresses. Sometimes, though, their inability to develop or their lack of personal insight is
what makes them interesting or recognisable.
Consider the following excerpt in which the protagonist and narrator is introduced to the
reader in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer (2015):
2
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also
a man of two minds. I am not some misunderstood mutant from a comic book or a
horror movie, although some have treated me as such. I am simply able to see any
issue from both sides. Sometimes I flatter myself that this is a talent, and although it
is admittedly one of a minor nature, it is perhaps also the sole talent I possess. At
other times, when I reflect on how I cannot help but observe the world in such a
fashion, I wonder if what I have should even be called talent. After all, a talent is
something you use, not something that uses you. The talent you cannot not use, the
talent that possesses you – that is a hazard, I must confess. But in the month when
this confession begins, my way of seeing the world still seemed more of a virtue than
a danger, which is how some dangers first appear. (1)
What does this short excerpt show you already about the main character?
Can you think of a main character who overall remains fairly static in their development
throughout the narrative? What is the impact? Why do you think the author has done this –
what are they trying to show?
Consider Anthony Burgess’ infamous A Clockwork Orange. Compare the ending of the novel
with Stanley Kubrick’s film adaption and the impact this has on the portrayal of the main
character and narrator, Alex. Which do you prefer? Why? What do you think the
author/director was trying to say through their treatment of Alex?
Minor/Side/Secondary/Supporting characters
Whatever you call them, your supporting characters still play an important role in your
narrative. They may be instrumental in furthering the plot, act as a foil or contrast to your
protagonist, or enable character development. Some of these characters will be flat or
static, serving as a plot device. For instance, the reader is never privy to Bertha’s version of
events or thoughts or feelings in Jane Eyre. She is used to create mystery and provide a
contrast to Jane, the eponymous heroine. In the following excerpt, the reader is finally
introduced to Bertha:
In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a figure ran backwards and
forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight,
tell; it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange
wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair,
wild as a mane, hid its head and face. (Brönte 352)
3
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
Compare this portrayal with that of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s anonymous narrator.
In Great Expectations, although Miss Havisham appears infrequently, she is a memorable
presence in the novel. When Pip, the narrator and protagonist, first meets her, he observes:
I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the
flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that
the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the
figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone. Once, I had been
taken to see some ghastly waxwork at the Fair, representing I know not what
impossible personage lying in state. Once, I had been taken to one of our old marsh
churches to see a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress, that had been dug out of a
vault under the church pavement. Now, wax-work and skeleton seemed to have
dark eyes that moved and looked at me. I should have cried out, if I could. (53)
Whilst, like Bertha, Miss Havisham is shown as monstrous, both in appearance and action,
Dickens also shows her character to be capable of growth when towards the end of the
novel she begs Pip to forgive her for her manipulation of his and Estella’s relationship:
Until you spoke to [Estella] the other day, and until I saw in you a looking-glass that
showed me what I once felt myself, I did not know what I had done. What have I
done! What have I done! (365)
Point of View
Who is telling your story? Is it their story or is your narrator telling the story of another? Are
they even involved in the events or an omniscient presence with access to everyone’s
feelings and thoughts? Perhaps your narrator isn’t even human but a personified force such
as Death in Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief; or an animal like that of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The
Heart of a Dog; or an inanimate object like cocaine in James Hannaham’s Delicious Foods. Or
maybe you don’t have a single narrator. For example, Jose Eduardo Agualusa’s A General
Theory of Oblivion is told from the point of view of different characters that in some way
connect to the main protagonist.
First person – ‘I’
 Creativity with voice
 Ultimate subjectivity
 Unreliability
 Unfiltered access to the character’s thoughts/feelings (inner world)
4
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
Different narration forms
 Interior monologue
 Dramatic monologue
 Detached autobiography
Examples: James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room; Charlotte Gilman Perkins’ The Yellow
Wallpaper; Otessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation; Vladamir Nabokov’s Lolita
Consider the excerpt from Tara June Winch’s short story ‘After the Carnage’ from her
collection of the same name:
I look up and I remember a veer of redstarts and house crows, the birds leaving the
slip of clear sky, sky rapidly remodelling itself in ash. I’d wondered if it was the first
time I’d seen the birds of Lahore from that angle.
I’m conscious, alert enough to know I’m in a hospital corridor, lying on my back
still, which means either I am relatively unharmed according to the order of triage,
or worse – and more likely – the hospital is understaffed and too many were hurt. A
medic’s blues flap past the side of my trolley and I manage to shout my wife in a way
that tacks a question mark on the end. (35)
Third person – ‘she’, ‘he’, ‘they’
 Limited omniscience – inside and outside of character; combines distance (can
manipulate/hide aspects) and intimacy (shows the interiority of character); ‘freeindirect-style’
 Omniscience – flexible as you can enter any character; authoritative
 Objective point of view – restricted to observer
Examples: Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men; J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series;
Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock
Consider the excerpt from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings:
The heart of Legolas was running under the stars of a summer night in some
northern glade amid the beech-woods; Gimli was fingering gold in his mind, and
wondering if it were fit to be wrought into the housing of the Lady’s gift. Merry and
Pippin in the middle boat were ill at ease, for Boromir sat muttering to himself,
sometimes biting his nails, as if some restlessness or doubt consumed him,
sometimes seizing a paddle and driving the boat close behind Aragorn’s. Then
Pippin, who sat in the bow looking back, caught a queer gleam in his eye, as he
5
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
peered forward gazing at Frodo. Sam had long ago made up his mind that, though
boats were maybe not as dangerous as he had been brought up to believe, they
were far more uncomfortable than even he had imagined. He was cramped and
miserable, having nothing to do but stare at the winter-lands crawling by and the
grey water on either side of him. Even when the paddles were in use they did not
trust Sam with one. (382)
Second person – ‘you’
 Can be met with resistance from the reader
 Hard to sustain over a long narrative, more commonly used in shorter forms
 Used to convey universality
Examples: Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler; James McInerney’s
Bright Lights, Big City
Consider the excerpt from Han Kang’s Human Acts:
Your childhood visits to her home inevitably included a quiet “follow me” as the
elderly woman, her back bent into the shape of the letter ㄱ, led the way to the dark
room that was used as a pantry. Then, you knew, she would open the larder door
and bring out the cakes that were stored there to use as ceremonial offerings on the
anniversary of a relative’s death: pastries made from oil and honey, and blockshaped cakes of pounded glutinous rice. You would take an oil-and-honey pastry
with a conspiratorial grin, and your grandmother would smile back at you, her eyes
creasing into slits. Her death was as quiet and understated as she herself had been.
(24)
Multiple perspective
 Switch allegiance
 Can present the same situation differently
 May be more effective in longer narratives where the author has room to
develop the different perspectives/nuanced perspective
 Shifting third person/mix of first, third, second
Examples: Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights; Han Kang’s The Vegetarian; Jackie Kay’s The
Trumpet; Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies; Virginia Woolf’s The Waves
Consider these excerpts from the two main characters in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl:
6
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
Nick Dunne
When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. The shape of it, to begin with.
The very first time I saw her, it was the back of the head I saw, and there was
something lovely about it, the angles of it. Like a shiny, hard corn kernel or a
riverbed fossil. She had what the Victorians would call a finely shaped head. You
could imagine the skull quite easily. (3)
Amy Dunne – Diary entry
Tra and la! I am smiling a big adopted-orphan smile as I write this. I am embarrassed
at how happy I am, like some Technicolor comic of a teenage girl talking on the
phone with my hair in a ponytail, the bubble above my head saying: I met a boy!
But I did. This is a technical, empirical truth. I met a boy, a great, gorgeous dude, a
funny, cool-ass guy. Let me set the scene, because it deserves setting for posterity
(no, please, I’m not that far gone, posterity! feh). But still. It’s not New Year’s, but
still very much the new year. It’s winter: early dark, freezing cold. (11)
Linda Anderson gives a comprehensive overview of the different types of point of view in
her book Creative Writing: A Workbook with Readings.
Impact of choosing a specific point of view
Consider and compare the following excerpt from Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea depicting
the author’s reimagining of ‘Bertha’ with that of Bronte’s Jane Eyre in the character section:
In this room I wake early and lie shivering for it is very cold. At last Grace Poole, the
woman who looks after me, lights a fire with paper and sticks and lumps of coal. She
kneels to blow it with bellows. The paper shrivels, the sticks crackle and spit, the coal
smoulders and glowers. In the end flames shoot up and they are beautiful. I get out
of bed and go close to watch them and to wonder why I have been brought here. For
what reason? There must be a reason. What is it that I must do? When I first came I
thought it would be for a day, two days, a week perhaps. I thought that when I saw
him and spoke to him I would be wise as serpents, harmless as doves. “I give you all I
have freely,” I would say, “and I will not trouble you again if you will let me go.” But
he never came. (Rhys 116)
7
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
Setting
Julia Casterton describes setting as the ‘spirit of the place’ where the writer gives ‘life and
breath to descriptions of places’ (15). Setting is not merely the landscape but the social and
cultural details of place (15). When your story is set may play as significant a role as where
in the details you include. Is it set in the past? Future? Present? Is the place you are writing
about real or invented?
Setting also influences the mood or atmosphere of a story. Mood will contain some element
of time and weather—rainy or dry, shadowy or light, winter or spring, peaceful or stormy,
night or day, twilight or morning. With colours, smells, and shapes—all these can frame the
mood for unique action and meaning to emerge. Our relation to place is charged with
emotion and judgement. Nothing happens nowhere.
You can also use setting to show character. Where do they live? What do they own? How
does your character move through and interact with their surroundings? This interaction
can be used to reveal much about the character’s emotional state. Perhaps the feel of the
setting is in stark contrast with the way your character feels – what impact does that have
on what they say, the way they behave, how the plot unfolds?
When developing your setting, consider:







Social context
Cultural context
Weather/season
Geographical setting – e.g., urban, rural, suburban, a particular country or city
Time: historical context/length of time over which the story unfolds
Sensory detail: sight, smell, sound, feel
Mood – how is this impacted by setting?
Beware! Too much detail can overwhelm and what you want to emphasise can get lost. Too
vague or too familiar and it can be boring.
Consider the following passages. One is from Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep? The other is from Murata’s Convenience Store Woman. They both appear at the
beginning of the novels and are both about seemingly ordinary experiences. Experiences
you have probably had yourself – travelling to work and working – but they tell the reader
something significant about the story through setting. Take note of how point of view is
used here too – what effect does it have?
8
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
The morning air, spilling over with radioactive motes, grey and sun-beclouding,
belched about him, haunting his nose; he sniffed involuntarily the taint of death.
Well, that was too strong a description for it, he decided as he made his way to the
particular plot of sod which he owned along with the unduly large apartment below.
The legacy of World War Terminus had diminished in potency; those who could not
survive the dust had passed into oblivion years ago, and the dust, weaker now and
confronting the strong survivors, only deranged minds and genetic properties.
Despite his lead codpiece, the dust – undoubtedly – filtered in and at him, brought
him daily, so long as he failed to emigrate, its little load of befouling filth. (Dick 8)
2. Convenience Store Woman
A convenience store is a world of sound. From the tinkle of the door chime to the
voices of TV celebrities advertising new products over the in-store cable network, to
the calls of the store workers, the beeps of the bar code scanner, the rustle of
customers picking up items and placing them in baskets, and the clacking of heels
around the store. It all blends into the convenience store sound that ceaselessly
caresses my eardrums. (Murata 1)
Showing vs Telling
Despite the phrase ‘show don’t tell’, both showing and telling have their uses, and, as we
will see, are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Indeed, as Wayne C. Booth suggests,
‘Everything [the author] shows serves to tell; the line between showing and telling is always
to some degree an arbitrary one’ (20). But what are the differences between the two?
To put it simply, telling summarises and showing dramatizes. Keep in mind that showing will
tend to slow the narrative down. Therefore, carefully detailing how your character opened
the door to the kitchen may not be necessary unless there is something or someone
significant on the other side of the door and you want to create suspense. Or by describing
in minute detail the type of doorknob they are turning you are trying to show something
about the character. Perhaps they are a doorknob aficionado, and this is a particularly rare
doorknob. Or they are fastidiously clean and notice every smudge and speck of dust and
decide to open the door using their jumper sleeve because it’s too dirty and thus offend the
person who lives in the house who is also the person they are in love with, which results in a
huge argument or maybe even murder! Thus, opening the door, in this case, has a huge
impact on how the story unfolds, or in other words, the plot/narrative structure.
9
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
Don’t worry too much about whether you are showing or telling when you are trying to get
a draft down. However, when you come to review your work, you may like to ask yourself:
‘which is more immediately engaging – to witness an event for yourself or to be told about it
afterwards by someone else?’ (Clarke 488) And this, of course, depends on the event and on
word limit/form. In other words, are you writing an epic novel or a piece of micro-fiction?
Telling – summarises
Consider the excerpt from Izumi Suzuki’s short story ‘Women and Women’ (1977), the
opening story of her collection Terminal Boredom (2021):
Long ago, the Earth was peopled only by women. They lived in peace until one day a
certain woman gave birth to a child unlike any that had come before: its body was
misshapen, it was rough and careless in everything it did, and it made a great deal of
trouble for everyone before it produced a few offspring and then died. Such was the
advent of man. (2)
Showing – dramatizes
Consider the opening excerpt from Tony Birch’s novel The White Girl:
Odette Brown rose with the sun, as she did each morning. She eased out of the
single bed she shared with her twelve-year-old granddaughter, Cecily Anne, who
went by the name of Sissy. Wrapping herself in a heavy dressing gown to guard
against the cold, Odette closed the bedroom door behind her and went into the
kitchen. She put a lit match to the wood chips and strips of old newspaper in the
stove. She then fetched the iron kettle and made her way out into the yard, filling it
with cold water from the tap above the gully-trap. As she leaned forward Odette felt
an unfamiliar twinge above her left hip. She placed the kettle on the ground and
clutched at her side, breathing in and out until the pain gradually subsided. (1)
Compare the showing and telling excerpts from Suzuki’s and Birch’s work. Each excerpt
belongs to the opening of the story. How do they differ? What is the impact? Note the form
of each.
Consider the excerpt from Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle:
My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my
sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been
born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same
length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and
10
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita
phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead. (Jackson 1)
What is this passage doing? On the surface the character is telling us (the reader) a series of
facts about herself. But through this list is the author showing us something about Mary’s
character?
Narrative structure/ Plot
David Lodge notes, ‘The structure of a narrative is like the framework of girders that holds
up a modern high-rise building: you can’t see it, but it determines the edifice’s shape and
character’ (216). Simply put, the plot is what happens in a story and how those events are
organised. A basic plot structure is a straightforward narrative with a beginning, middle and
end, tracking the main character’s journey and transformation as they face challenges and
adversity, and emerge victorious. But ‘basic’ doesn’t have to mean predictable or boring.
Consider the TV show Breaking Bad or another book/movie/show that appeals to you and
tracks the development of its main character. How does it adhere to this narrative
structure? What does it do differently? What was the impact of these choices on your
reception of the story?
How you present your story to the reader, the choices you make about elements such as
character, style, setting, description all influence the plot and impact the reader’s
understanding and reception of the narrative. For instance, you might take the ‘basic’ plot
structure, often referred to as ‘The Hero’s Journey’, and subvert it. What does ‘victory and
transformation’ mean for your character? Are the challenges they face physical or
emotional or both? After all, as Linda Anderson suggests drama or ‘dramatic action’ does
not necessarily refer to ‘high adventure [such as] gunfights or thrilling battles, but to a
movement which may be just a transition in time or a change in emotional state’ (140).
Keeping in mind the concept of ‘dramatic action’, consider and compare these two
passages:
The Talented Mr Ripley:
Tom glanced behind him and saw the man coming out of the Green Cage, heading
this way. Tom walked faster. There was no doubt that the man was after him. Tom
had noticed him five minutes ago, eyeing him carefully from a table, as if he weren’t
quite sure, but almost. He had looked sure enough for Tom to down his drink in a
hurry, pay and get out. (Highsmith 1)
11
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
Self-Portrait in Green:
Ivan is sitting across the table from her, and Jenny conceals her lostness behind a
pathetic smile, all the while thinking: How he’s aged. And she knows perfectly well
that he’s looking at her and thinking: How she’s aged. And then, Jenny tells herself,
Ivan can look at the boys that surround them, who are the picture of perfectly
successful human beings, and muse that it’s worth growing older to revel in that
perfection, that success; but for Jenny, where can she look to find this delight in
growing older? Where can she look? (NDiaye 45)
Aside from the basic plot structure previously mentioned, there are many ways to tell your
story. Your story may be set around a theme or a place and split between different
characters, such as Rebekah Clarkson’s Barking Dogs (2017), Berndanie Evaristo’s Girl,
Woman, Other (2019) and Carol Lefevre’s Murmurations (2020). You might avoid a happy or
closed ending, leaving your readers to debate the fate of your protagonist, such as that of
Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club nameless narrator.
Time is a significant consideration that might impact your structure. When does your story
start? When does it end? Is it linear? Or does it chop and change from past to present? Or
jump into the future? For instance, Kurt Vonnegurt’s Slaughterhouse 5 uses a nonchronological narrative structure devised of short vignettes to reflect his character’s state of
mind. This structure is highlighted early on with this passage:
LISTEN:
BILLY PILGRIM has come unstuck in time. Billy has gone to sleep a senile widower
and awakened on his wedding day. He has walked through a door in 1955 and come
out another one in 1941. He has gone back through that door to find himself in
1963. He has seen his birth and death many times, he says, and pays random visits
to all the events in between.
He says (17).
An excellent resource for learning about different types of plot/narrative structures is Loren
Niemi’s book The New Book of Plots: Constructing Engaging Narratives for Oral and Written
Storytelling (2012). He presents 9 different plot types: straight; meta-framed; parallel;
regression; list; circular; reversal; digression; and revelation. Exploring the conventions of
these narrative structures may be illuminating. Sometimes placing parameters on your work
can be helpful – it can take you in new and unexpected directions – or you may wish to
challenge or push against them.
But remember, you don’t have to follow a particular structure. As Anderson suggests:
‘Character + conflict = plot’ (84). Some people carefully plan out the structure of their story,
12
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
whilst others like to see where their characters take them and how they influence the
sequence of events. There is no right way. What works for one person may leave another
stuck. Or an approach that worked for one story, may not for another.
The End…
As was mentioned in the introduction, this has been an incredibly brief guide to creative
writing. Examples from a variety of authors have been used to demonstrate the techniques
discussed and to inspire your own writing/thinking. Reading widely exposes you to different
techniques and ideas. It also enables you to work out what you like and dislike. But even if
there is something you don’t like, it’s important to try and critically consider why you have
reacted in this way – did the intended effect fail or seem obvious? Or did it make you feel
uncomfortable for another reason? That reason might be worth exploring to inform your
own writing.
Remember that writing takes practice. And redrafting. And editing. A lot of editing. Good
writing doesn’t happen on its own or come out perfectly formed. It’s often messy and
chaotic and frustrating, but when the parts start to come together to make a thing,
whatever that may be, it is also incredibly rewarding.
Talk all you want about planning; the truth is we discover our writing by writing…Out
of a process itself chaotic – the thinking of thoughts and the embarkation upon one’s
sentences – a writer discovers what it is she’s really trying to say and how she needs
to hang it together. (Tredinnick 224)
References
Fiction
Agualusa, Jose Eduardo. A General Theory of Oblivion. Trans. Daniel Hahn. London: Vintage,
2016. Print.
Baldwin, James. Giovanni’s Room. 1956. London: Penguin, 2015. Print.
Brönte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. 1847. London: Penguin, 2021. Print.
Brönte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. 1847. London: Penguin, 2014. Print.
Bulgakov, Mikhail. The Heart of a Dog. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Wolff, 1968. Print.
13
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. 1962. New York: Norton, 1988. Print.
Calvino, Italo. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler. Trans. William Weaver. 1979. London: Secker
and Warburg, 1981. Print.
Clarkson, Rebekah. Barking Dogs. South Melbourne: Affirm, 2017. Print.
Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. 1968. London: Millennium, 1999. Print.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. 1861. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Print.
Dunn, Katherine. Geek Love. 1989. New York: Vintage, 2002. Print.
Evaristo, Bernadine Girl, Woman, Other. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2019. Print.
Flynn, Gillian. Gone Girl. 2012. London: Orion, 2014. Print.
Greene, Graham. Brighton Rock. 1938. London: Vintage, 2004. Print.
Groff, Lauren. Fates and Furies. 2015. London: Cornerstone, 2016. Print.
Hannaham, James. Delicious Foods. New York: Black Bay Books, 2016. Print.
Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr Ripley. 1955. London: Vintage, 1999. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. We Have Always Lived in the Castle. 1962. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.
Kang, Han. Human Acts. Trans. Deborah Smith. 2014. London: Portobello Books, 2016. Print.
Kang, Han. The Vegetarian. Trans. Deborah Smith. 2007. London: Granta Books, 2016. Print.
Kay, Jackie. Trumpet. 1998. London: Vintage, 2000. Print.
Lefevre, Carol. Murmurations. North Geelong: Spinifex, 2020. Print.
McCarthy, Cormac. No Country for Old Men. 2005. London: Picador, 2012. Print.
McInerney, James. 1984. Bright Lights, Big City. London: Bloomsbury, 2017. Print.
Moshfegh, Otessa. My Year of Rest and Relaxation. London: Vintage, 2019. Print.
Murata, Sayaka. Convenience Store Woman. Trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori. 2016. London:
Granta, 2019. Print.
14
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich. Lolita. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965. Print.
Ndiaye, Marie. Self-Portrait in Green. Trans. Jordan Stump. 2005. San Francisco: Two Lines
Press, 2014. Print.
Nguyen, Viet Thanh. The Sympathizer. London: Corsair, 2015. Print.
Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: Random House, 1997. Print.
Perkins, Charlotte Gilman. The Yellow Wallpaper. 1892. Connecticut: Martino Fine Books,
2018. Print.
Pratchett, Terry. Guards! Guards! 1989. Transworld Digital, 2008. Online.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter series.
Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. 1966. London: Penguin, 2015. Print.
Suzuki, Izumi. Terminal Boredom. Trans. Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel
Joseph, Aiko Masubuchi, and Helen O’Horan. Verso: London, 2021. Print.
Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel. The Fellowship of the Ring: The Lord of the Rings Part 1. 1954.
London: HarperCollins, 2011. Print.
Winch, Tara June. After the Carnage. University of Queensland Press, 2016. Print.
Woolf, Virginia. The Waves. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Print.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse 5. 1969. London: Vintage, 1991. Print.
Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. Acton: Pan Macmillan Australia, 2008. Print.
Non-fiction
Anderson, Linda. Creative Writing: A Workbook with Readings. Taylor and Francis, 2013.
Online.
Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction. 2nd ed., University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Casterton, Julia. Creative Writing: a Practical Guide. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
15
Creative Writing Guide
___________________________________________________________________________
Clarke, Lindsay. ‘Going the Last Inch: Some thoughts on Showing and Telling.’ In Anderson,
Linda. Creative Writing: A Workbook with Readings. Abingdon: Taylor and Francis, 2013. Pp
488-491. Online.
Hamand, Maggie. Creative Writing for Dummies. London: Wiley, 2009. Print.
Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Anchor, 1994.
Print.
Leach, Heather, and Robert Graham. Everything You Need to Know About Creative Writing:
But Knowing isn’t Everything. London: Continuum, 2006. Print.
Lodge, David. The Art of Fiction: Illustrated from Classic and Modern Texts. London: Penguin,
1992. Print.
Niemi, Loren. The New Book of Plots: Constructing Engaging Narratives for Oral and Written
Storytelling. Parkhurst Brothers, 2012.
Treddinick, Mark. The Little Red Writing Book. Kensington: UNSW, 2006. Print.
Further Resources:
Carver, Raymond. Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories. New York: Vintage, 1989.
Charters, Anne. The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston: St Martin’s
Press, 1994.
Dunlop, Rishma., et al. Writing Creative Writing: Essays from the Field. 1st ed., Dundurn
Press, 2018.
Grenville, Kate. The Writing Book: A Workbook for Fiction Writers. Crows Nest: Allen and
Unwin, 1991.
King, Stephen. On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft. Scribner, 2000.
Luckhurst, Mary and John Singleton. The Creative Writing Handbook: Techniques for New
Writers. Macmillan, 2000.
16